Timeline of Accomplishments during Fall 2020

Students: ANYA JENSEN, BLAKE BLANCETT, CARLOS GODINEZ, DREW CHASSE, DYLAN MERZENICH, JASMINE KAMDAR, JEREMY SKOLER, KATIE GOLDSTEIN, LEON SANTEN, MIA SKAGGS, NICOLA VAN MOON, ODALYS BENITEZ, RILEY ZITO, SEBASTIAN CALVO, WHITNEY XU

Independent Studies

• Accessible Housing in Nature with Sara Hendren - Odalys Benitez and Mia Skaggs
• Dynamic Complexities with Linda Vanasupa - Odalys Benitez and Leon Santen
• A Practical Application of Sustainable Community Living with Jon Stolk - Sebastian Calvo
• Off-grid Wind Turbine - Leon Santen - Notes - Wind Turbine ISR-G

August

16 - Drew, Whitney, and Leon arrived at the farm

17

18 - Sebastian, Mia, and Jeremy arrived

19

20

21

22

23

24

25 - Jasmine and Carlos arrived

26 - Dylan, Riley, and Katie arrived

27 - Blake arrived

28

29 - Odalys, Anya, and Nicola arrived

30

31

September

1 - Micro-hydro is connected outputting around 70W.

2

3 - Kayaking and tubing trip

4 - Jasmine’s birthday, three solar panels connected (rated for 600W, outputting around 230W)

5 - first game night

6 — met to work on planning end design for buildings

7 - first newsletter, group visioning and commitments for the semester

8 - first day of classes for Olin students. A little bit of a rocky start with the WiFi connection. We also cleared the space for the octagon by cutting poplars and sassafras. Evened out the ground for the crones cottage and extended the dam for the pond.

9 - officially broke ground all together. Finished digging and planting 4 posts for the crones cottage. Accidentally put one of the posts in the wrong spot by 11 inches so we redug and replanted. Ate such yummy dumplings for dinner.

10 - dug 9 holes for the octagon and planted 2 posts.

11 - connected MPPT solar charge controller with the three solar panels outputting more than 300W during peak hours.

12 - took a rest day for the rain and played games, read, baked, and cleaned the main house. Took bunkbeds and flooring out of the bus.

13 -

14 - started underpinning of crown's cottage

15 - sent out second newsletter. Had so much power coming into our batteries that we plugged in The fridge for the first time

16 - Riley and Dylan moved into Bus

17 - rainy day. Played games and made bread.

18 - finished the octagon joists and moved new lumber.

19 - Cob oven workshop. Learned how to mix clay and sand to make cob and then put a lotus on the cob oven.

20 - Had our weekly Sunday meeting and brunch. Are crepes :). Took a photo with the octagon joists.

21 - Learned how to put down sub-flooring. Finishing joists on crones cottage.

22 - cut octagon sub-flooring and filled in crones sub-flooring. Had a celebration for the equinox.

23 - Put up 3 walls of the octogenarian and cut crones sub-flooring. Fixed the micro hydro turbine- current was running backwards. Started wall frames for the octagon.

24 - planned out sub flooring for tree house and measured boards to cut.

25 -

26

27 - finished fourth wall of octagon.

28

29

30 - first crones wall frame went up.

Oct

01 - giant branch fell on the art studio.

02 - 6 walls up for octagon.

03 decided to move into the sun with tiny cabin.

04 - decided to go without chore chart besides cooking and AM animals; cleared out new place for tiny cabin, cut down trees.

05 - wall frames on octagon finished.

06

07

08 - started light stray clay on the octagon just in time for the hurricane.

09

10

11

12 - broke second ground on tiny house and finished six post holes. Three crones wall frames are up

13 - cut posts for the tiny house and octagon bump out. Dug post holes for octagon and art studio bump outs.

14 - cut 60 bottles for walls. Light straw clayed until 10:30 pm to finish a big wall.

15 - started electrical wiring on the octagon.

16 - fourth crones wall went up.

17

18

19 - put up beams on the octagon. tamped the octagon bump out posts. took down a giant dead tree that was going to come down on the art studio.

20 - light straw clayed another wall and a bit more on the octagon. cleaned off solar panels which tripled our output.

21 - dug and planted posts for the tiny house.

22

23

24

25

26

27 - put rafters up on the octagon.

28 - put up roof boards on the octagon.

29

30

31 - Had a ritual for Halloween / Samhein. Collected herbs to make a salve and a tincture.

November

01

02 -

03 - Aiden got his first deer while hunting with Carlos, who left a few hours later. Put up floor frame for tiny house.

04 - Installed sub-flooring on the tiny house with Mike. Made a prototype for the wind turbine.

05 - Worked on filling in missing sections between walls & roof on Octagon.

06 - Started light straw clay insulation for crones. Almost completed the north wall.

07 - cut octagon roof boards with a chain saw.

08 -

09 - Planted garlic for next year. Cut all boards for tiny house walls. Bozena left.

10 - Put up crones rafters, put in first window on the octagon and started putting on roofing paper.

11 - cleaning and baking day. Cleaned up main house and baked 4 different sweet breads :)

12 - processed deer meat into sausages and dry canned some of them. CADed parts for the wind turbine prototype so we could send them to be 3D printed. Started assembling first tiny house wall.

13

14

15

16

17

18 - all tiny house walls done. Cut rafters for tiny.

19

20 - Went on a hike in Grayson Highlands state park.

21 - made solar panel mounts. Put rafters on the tiny house

22 - started tiny house roof. Finished a tree house wall. Put WiFi antennae in a tree. Cut lots of firewood. ODI left :/

23 - worked on refurbishing and installing windows on the octagon. Finished the tiny house roof boards.

24 - hoisted the first tree house wall up and installed it. Continued work on windows.

25

26 - light straw clayed tiny house.

27 - finished 3 walls of light straw clay on the tiny house.

28

29 - painted octagon windows.

30

December

01 - Mia's bday. First real snow day. Sledding!!

02 - Aydan's birthday.

03 - put on tiny house roofing paper.

04 - put on tiny house metal roof & caulked.

05 - Thanksgiving meal.

06 -

07 - started tiny house deck. Framed octagon loft.

08 - Finished octo loft.

09 - put on octagon roofing paper & metal roof panels.

10 - caulked octo roof & added top panels. Backpacking trip up the nature conservancy.

11 - took apart treehouse wall.

12 - put in a couple tiny house windows. Put up the rest of the tree house walls.

13 - put up tree house rafters. Angle grinded octagon metal roof off.

14

15

16